This invention relates to safe rooms for protecting an occupant against tornadoes, hurricanes, burglary, bombs, and other hazards.
Tornadoes and hurricanes produce extremely high winds that can totally destroy a home or other structure. Unless one is extremely lucky, an occupant of such a home or structure will likely be killed, either from being struck by flying or collapsing debris or by being carried away by the high force winds.
There are essentially two types of structures designed to protect individuals during such storms. The first type of structure is a completely reinforced dwelling with its walls and foundation initially designed to withstand the extreme wind forces generated from killer tornadoes and hurricanes. These structures are expensive and do not provide a solution for structures, and particularly homes, that were constructed using standard building codes, i.e., that were not initially designed to withstand tornado-force winds. The second type of structure is a reinforced emergency shelter, which is also referred to as a safe room. Safe rooms are either built inside an existing dwelling in the basement or on the ground floor, or they are placed outside the dwelling in close proximity. Because of their relative cost and adaptability to existing homes, safe rooms are, to most homeowners, the only viable solution for protection against killer tornadoes and hurricanes.
The structural performance of safe room shelters is specified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). These criteria state that the walls, ceiling, structural attachments and foundation system must withstand forces generated from 250 mile per hour (mph) wind at 3-second peak gusts. The shelter walls, ceiling and floor must withstand these design pressures such that no element shall separate from another, and the entire shelter structure must resist failure from overturning, shear (sliding), and uplift. The walls and ceiling must also withstand, without perforation, loads from a windborne missile impact. The impact load is established to be that of a 15 pound, 2xc3x974 wood board missile traveling at 100 mph, which is the assumed speed of the board in 250 mph winds.
A safe room that satisfies the above criteria and promoted by FEMA is constructed of concrete walls reinforced with steel rebar. The concrete forms are foam sections that are light weight and can be assembled by one or two people. The concrete-filled, foam-formed walls may be built into new housing or added inside or outside of existing structures at a relatively low cost. Although effective, the above shelter requires construction at the installation site and requires multiple and expensive construction steps and materials: a foam form, steel rebar, and the pouring of concrete.
Therefore, it is the object of the present invention to provide an emergency shelter or safe room that can be easily assembled at the installation site, or can be shipped to the installation site already assembled with only the need to be secured to the foundation. Such a safe room must therefore be lightweight for ease of shipment and assembly, but must also be strong enough to withstand the design criteria described above.
The aforementioned is accomplished in accordance with the principles of the present invention by providing a safe room comprised of at least one wall and at least one roof, both of which comprise at least one metallic-skinned foam panel with an impact-absorbing sheathing attached to at least one side of the metallic-skinned foamed panels as a cladding layer. The safe room also comprises at least one securable door, and the safe room is fixedly anchored to a foundation.
Other objects, features, and characteristics of the present invention, as well as the methods of operation of the invention and the function and interrelation of the elements of structure, will become more apparent upon consideration of the following description and the appended claims with reference to the accompanying drawings, all of which form a part of this disclosure, wherein like reference numerals designate corresponding parts in the various figures.